Resource Type: Deep Time

Our world view can shift when we stop telling ourselves why something can’t happen.  By vividly envisioning a hoped-for future, we begin to believe that it is really possible.  Enriching this vision with all our senses—imagining colors, shapes, sounds, smells, tastes, facial expressions, and the “feel” of this possible future—activates our creative and intuitive faculties.… Read more

(formerly Double Circle) (60 minutes) This deep time ritual allows us to see the Great Turning within a larger time frame, including that of a human being of the 7th Generation in the future, roughly two centuries from the present.  It takes seriously the words of eminent radiologist Sister Rosalie Bertell: “Every being who will… Read more

(40 minutes) In writing exercise, we identify with a human living on Earth one or two centuries from now and, from that perspective, see our current efforts and receive counsel and encouragement.  It can also be used as a stand-alone practice, or in Going Forth. Molly has used it to begin a retreat focused on… Read more

(15 to 30 minutes) In facing a particular situation or issue, the act of describing it aloud to future generations heightens appreciation of what is at stake in the long term.  The larger time frame deepens the sense of responsibility, stimulates creativity, and strengthens our resolve. This practice is predominately used at a specific location… Read more

by Ann Marie Davis (See Deep Times, August 2017, for a more complete introduction and bio.) Introduction:  When I rewrote “Harvesting the Gifts of the Ancestors,” I tried to not equate human evolution with those who lead the movement toward our current industrial growth society. I believe that people who stayed in Africa or anywhere… Read more

(60 minutes) This extended practice connects us vividly with our human past on Earth, and deepens awareness of the strengths it offers us.  The expanses of time, which we enter, remind us that the Industrial Growth Society is a momentary episode– and that, to move beyond it, we can draw on a far larger and… Read more

(or the Eco-Milling) Using our own bodies, we learn about our kinship with other life forms, and the debt of gratitude we owe to those who first invented key features of our anatomy. Method This process is usually conducted as a Milling (see Chapter 7), which allows it to be lively as well as instructive.… Read more

Method Following the method for Open Sentences described under Gratitude Practices, offer the following or make up similar sentences. When I am in a hurry, my body feels… When I am in a hurry, my mind is like… Nowadays, I don’t have time to… Lack of time affects my relationships in these ways… If I… Read more

(5 to 10 minutes) This ritual invocation, to which the group adds its voices, affirms our connectedness with those who have gone before and those who come after us, as well as those living now.  It evokes our solidarity with all these beings across time, and opens us to the inspiration they can offer. Heightening… Read more

People of today relate to time in a way that is surely unique in history.  The technologies and economic forces unleashed by the Industrial Growth Society radically alter our experience of time, subjecting us to frenetic speeds, and severing our felt connection with past and future generations. The Industrial Growth Society and the technologies it… Read more